Brain abscess is an abscess within the brain tissue caused by inflammation and collection of infected material coming from local or remote infectious sources. The infection may also be introduced through a skull fracture following a head trauma or surgical procedures. Brain abscess is usually associated with congenital heart disease in young children. It may occur at any age but is most frequent in the third decade of life.
Group A streptococcal infections are a number of infections with Streptococcus pyogenes, a group A streptococcus (GAS). S. pyogenes is a species of beta-hemolytic Gram-positive bacteria that is responsible for a wide range of infections that are mostly common and fairly mild. If the bacteria enter the bloodstream an infection can become severe and life-threatening, and is called an invasive GAS (iGAS).
Bloodstream infections (BSIs) are infections of blood caused by blood-borne pathogens. Blood is normally a sterile environment, so the detection of microbes in the blood is always abnormal. A bloodstream infection is different from sepsis, which is characterized by severe inflammatory or immune responses of the host organism to pathogens.
Rheumatic fever (RF) is an inflammatory disease that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain. The disease typically develops two to four weeks after a streptococcal throat infection. Signs and symptoms include fever, multiple painful joints, involuntary muscle movements, and occasionally a characteristic non-itchy rash known as erythema marginatum. The heart is involved in about half of the cases. Damage to the heart valves, known as rheumatic heart disease (RHD), usually occurs after repeated attacks but can sometimes occur after one. The damaged valves may result in heart failure, atrial fibrillation and infection of the valves.
Mitral valve prolapse (MVP) is a valvular heart disease characterized by the displacement of an abnormally thickened mitral valve leaflet into the left atrium during systole. It is the primary form of myxomatous degeneration of the valve. There are various types of MVP, broadly classified as classic and nonclassic. In severe cases of classic MVP, complications include mitral regurgitation, infective endocarditis, congestive heart failure, and, in rare circumstances, cardiac arrest.
Infective endocarditis is an infection of the inner surface of the heart, usually the valves. Signs and symptoms may include fever, small areas of bleeding into the skin, heart murmur, feeling tired, and low red blood cell count. Complications may include backward blood flow in the heart, heart failure – the heart struggling to pump a sufficient amount of blood to meet the body's needs, abnormal electrical conduction in the heart, stroke, and kidney failure.
Vasculitis is a group of disorders that destroy blood vessels by inflammation. Both arteries and veins are affected. Lymphangitis is sometimes considered a type of vasculitis. Vasculitis is primarily caused by leukocyte migration and resultant damage. Although both occur in vasculitis, inflammation of veins (phlebitis) or arteries (arteritis) on their own are separate entities.
A boil, also called a furuncle, is a deep folliculitis, which is an infection of the hair follicle. It is most commonly caused by infection by the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, resulting in a painful swollen area on the skin caused by an accumulation of pus and dead tissue. Boils are therefore basically pus-filled nodules. Individual boils clustered together are called carbuncles. Most human infections are caused by coagulase-positive S. aureus strains, notable for the bacteria's ability to produce coagulase, an enzyme that can clot blood. Almost any organ system can be infected by S. aureus.
Libman–Sacks endocarditis is a form of non-bacterial endocarditis that is seen in association with systemic lupus erythematosus, antiphospholipid syndrome, and malignancies. It is one of the most common cardiac manifestations of lupus.
Nocardiosis is an infectious disease affecting either the lungs or the whole body. It is due to infection by a bacterium of the genus Nocardia, most commonly Nocardia asteroides or Nocardia brasiliensis.
Nonbacterial thrombotic endocarditis (NBTE) is a form of endocarditis in which small sterile vegetations are deposited on the valve leaflets. Formerly known as marantic endocarditis, which comes from the Greek marantikos, meaning "wasting away". The term "marantic endocarditis" is still sometimes used to emphasize the association with a wasting state such as cancer.
Valvular heart disease is any cardiovascular disease process involving one or more of the four valves of the heart. These conditions occur largely as a consequence of aging, but may also be the result of congenital (inborn) abnormalities or specific disease or physiologic processes including rheumatic heart disease and pregnancy.
Subacute bacterial endocarditis, abbreviated SBE, is a type of endocarditis. Subacute bacterial endocarditis can be considered a form of type III hypersensitivity.
Loeffler endocarditis is a form of heart disease characterized by a stiffened, poorly-functioning heart caused by infiltration of the heart by white blood cells known as eosinophils. Restrictive cardiomyopathy is a disease of the heart muscle which results in impaired diastolic filling of the heart ventricles, i.e. the large heart chambers which pump blood into the pulmonary or systemic circulation. Diastole is the part of the cardiac contraction-relaxation cycle in which the heart fills with venous blood after the emptying done during its previous systole.
Eikenella corrodens is a Gram-negative facultative anaerobic bacillus that can cause severe invasive disease in humans. It was first identified by M. Eiken in 1958, who called it Bacteroides corrodens. E. corrodens is a rare pericarditis associated pathogen. It is a fastidious, slow growing, human commensal bacillus, capable of acting as an opportunistic pathogen and causing abscesses in several anatomical sites, including the liver, lung, spleen, and submandibular region. E. corrodens could independently cause serious infection in both immunocompetent and immunocompromised hosts.
Aortitis is the inflammation of the aortic wall. The disorder is potentially life-threatening and rare. It is reported that there are only 1–3 new cases of aortitis per year per million people in the United States and Europe. Aortitis is most common in people 10 to 40 years of age.
Kingella kingae is a species of Gram-negative facultative anaerobic β-hemolytic coccobacilli. First isolated in 1960 by Elizabeth O. King, it was not recognized as a significant cause of infection in young children until the 1990s, when culture techniques had improved enough for it to be recognized. It is best known as a cause of septic arthritis, osteomyelitis, spondylodiscitis, bacteraemia, and endocarditis, and less frequently lower respiratory tract infections and meningitis.
Austrian syndrome, also known as Osler's triad, is a medical condition that was named after Robert Austrian in 1957. The presentation of the condition consists of pneumonia, endocarditis, and meningitis, all caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae. It is associated with alcoholism due to hyposplenism and can be seen in males between the ages of 40 and 60 years old. Robert Austrian was not the first one to describe the condition, but Richard Heschl or William Osler were not able to link the signs to the bacteria because microbiology was not yet developed.
Dental antibiotic prophylaxis is the administration of antibiotics to a dental patient for prevention of harmful consequences of bacteremia, that may be caused by invasion of the oral flora into an injured gingival or peri-apical vessel during dental treatment.
Corynebacterium amycolatum is a gram-positive, non-spore-forming, aerobic or facultatively anaerobic bacillus capable of fermentation with propionic acid as the major end product of its glucose metabolism. One of its best known relatives is Corynebacterium diphtheriae, the causative agent of diphtheria. C. amycolatum is a common component of the natural flora found on human skin and mucous membranes, and therefore is an occasional contaminant in human blood cultures but can rarely cause infections such as endocarditis.
